by Ovidia Pike
“I haven’t seen you in years,” Sheila said, lip poking out in a pout. “The least you could do is buy me a drink if you need my help so bad.”
I glanced over at Sophie again, but she had turned her eyes straight forward, away from both of us.
“I...don’t think so. We can pay you,” I said to Sheila. “It’s no problem.”
“I don’t want your money. I want your time,” Sheila said, then finally looked at Sophie with a saccharine smile.
“As long as your friend doesn’t mind? Or are you two...”
“I don’t mind,” Sophie said in a casual voice, her face sliding into a blank mask as she shrugged. “I need some time away from him, anyway.”
“Sophie—”
Sheila interrupted me by clapping her hands together.
“Great,” she said brightly. “Shall we go now?”
“But—”
“Go ahead, Gabriel,” Sophie said, her tone aloof as she stood, her gaze directed toward the floor. “I’m going to head back to my apartment. I could use a break.”
“I’ll drop him off later if he feels like coming home,” Sheila said. I took a deep breath as Sophie left, shutting the door hard behind her. I felt angry—a heat in the pit of my stomach that I forced myself not to show. I wanted desperately to go after Sophie but knew that I couldn’t, so I forced a smile on my face, giving in to her so that she would give in to me by disclosing Chelsey’s location. I knew her well enough to know that if I pissed her off, she’d give me nothing.
“Finally,” Sheila said, going behind her desk to grab her bag. “I thought she wouldn’t leave. She seems...taken with you. It’s cute.”
“Yeah,” was all I said in response. “Are you ready to go?”
“Do you think she’s upset?” she asked but didn’t sound at all worried about it.
“No,” I said to her. “She’s not upset. She’s not interested.”
“But you’ve tried?”
“No,” I replied, irritation creeping into my voice. She frowned at me.
“Are you going to be grumpy this whole time? I don’t want to go out with someone and be bored to death. You used to be interesting.”
“I’m sorry, I’m just...worried about Chelsey. I want to get to her as soon as possible.”
“You can get to her in the morning, I promise,” she said, putting her hand on my chest. I pulled gently away from her and flashed her a smile again.
“Let’s go,” I said. “I do need a drink.”
“Good boy,” she purred as we left her office, taking my hand and leading me to the elevator. She linked our fingers, staring at me expectantly.
“I really did miss you, you know,” she said. “I’ve thought about you a lot.”
“Have you?” I asked, looking at her curiously. She gave me a wicked smile.
“Yes,” she replied. “There are certain things I haven’t felt since I was with you.”
“Like what?” I inquired. She leaned in to whisper in my ear as the door opened.
“I’ll show you later,” she said, pressing a kiss to my cheek before we exited the elevator and went out to the parking lot. When we got to her car we climbed in, and I tensed up all over again as we started to drive.
“I forgot this freaks you out,” she said teasingly. “Wild wolf in the big city.”
“It’s fine,” I said, turning to look at her in my seat, wanting to change the conversation.
“Tell me what you’ve been up to.”
“I’m still working, keeping tabs on things, getting a cut of what’s mine,” she said. “But I don’t want to talk about work.”
“I thought that’s what we’re going out for,” I said, keeping the impatience out of my voice.
“That was just a way to get you out,” she said. “You look like you could use a drink, loosen up a little bit, stop being so tense.”
“I’m always tense.”
“Not always,” she said, tracing up and down my arm with her finger. “I remember a few times you were pretty relaxed. Usually, I was on top of you.”
“Right,” I said with a knot in my throat, swallowing hard. She pulled up in front of a hotel and parked, getting out of the car as I did the same. She walked ahead of me, hips shifting back and forth, glancing at me over her shoulder as the door was opened for us. The lobby was busy with people coming and going—I looked around nervously as we crossed through the wide open room and to the dimly-lit bar on the other side. I pulled out a chair for her and she sat down with a thanks, her lips in a sensual pout, eyes locked on mine as I sat down.
“So what’s new with you?” she asked. I burst into laughter.
“Too much to get through.”
“We have time,” she said. “We have all night.”
“I really need to get to Chelsey,” I stated plainly.
“Don’t be impatient, it’s rude,” she said sharply.
“I’m sorry,” I said. Her face turned from a scowl to a smile and she put her hand on top of mine as the waitress brought our drinks. I downed mine in a single swallow and Sheila gestured for another. I downed that, too, and my nerves began to calm down.
“What have you been up to?” she asked.
“I’ve been busy at the village. Things have gotten crazy there. Now Harley is out to kill me.”
“No surprise there,” she said.
“What do you mean?”
“She hated you. She’s always hated you. I’m not surprised she finally snapped.”
“How do you know that? You barely spoke to her.”
“Oh, honey. I spoke to her all the time. She kept asking me personal questions about you. It was confusing because I thought, she’s your right hand, she should know these things.”
“What kinds of questions?” I asked.
“Mostly it was about us. She asked me whether we were in love, if I thought we would mate. I told her no way in hell is Gabriel Alarick going to mate with anyone.”
I grunted in response.
“Why didn’t you tell me all of this?”
“It’s not exactly great pillow talk,” she said, turning my hand around, stroking my palm with her fingers. The feeling made me shiver and Sophie flashed into my mind. In that moment, every part of me ached to be with her instead of Sheila.
“What are you thinking about?” she asked in a low voice, eyes half-lidded with desire.
“I’m thinking about those months you spent at the village,” I lied.
“Oh, yeah? What about them?”
“All the pillow talk,” I said, giving in, hoping to coax her into what I wanted by playing her game.
“Yeah?” she asked, twining our fingers again. “I’ve thought about it a lot. Nobody has ever made me feel that way.”
“I’m glad to know you enjoyed it,” I said, taking a small sip of my drink. I noticed only then that she was leaning close to me, staring at me through her lashes.
“You can kiss me now, if you want,” she said. My heart sped up and a wave of disgust washed over me. Sophie’s face flashed behind my lids, her soft lips, the way she tasted.
“Maybe,” I said to her anyway. “I’ll trade you a kiss for each question you answer for me.”
“Hmm,” she said, brushing her lips over mine. I had to fight to keep from shuddering away from her. “What do you want to know?”
“Gerend,” I said. “The multi-shifter.”
“You want to know where he is.”
“I do.”
“He’s on the south side of the city, shifter road. A lot of them live there.”
“Where on shifter road?”
“Nope. You owe me a kiss.”
I took a deep breath, leaning in to kiss her softly on the lips. She lingered for a second and I stayed there, wanting to pull away. I finally did and she grinned at me.
“Where is Gerend?”
“I don’t know his address—”
“I thought you did,” I said.
“No, but I know that he spe
nds his evenings at the bar there. The one without a sign.”
“Every evening?”
“Mostly.”
“What does he do with Chelsey?”
“That, I have no idea,” she said. She took my mouth in a kiss again and this time she slipped her tongue between my lips. I let out a deep breath, my mind filled with thoughts of my natural mate, kissing her until I heard a throat clear at the table. I turned to look and my heart leapt to see Sophie standing there with a cold look on her face, the same expression she’d had earlier.
“Sophie,” I said, standing up immediately. “What are you doing here?”
“Someone broke into my house,” she said, holding my eye, a heat and rage there so fierce it almost made me flinch. Guilt poured over me like a scalding shower, making my skin itch as Sheila stood as well.
“Call the police, then. Why are you here?”
“I need Gabriel,” Sophie said dryly, arms crossed over her chest. “I’m sorry to interrupt.”
“It’s fine,” I said quickly. “I mean we were just—”
“I saw what you were doing,” Sophie muttered. I shook my head, opening my mouth before I was interrupted by Sheila.
“I think you’re here because you’re jealous,” Sheila said with a smirk on her face. A look flashed into Sophie’s eyes like she was tempted to hit her, but I took her by the arm before she could, laying cash down on the table for the beverages. I didn’t say a single word to Sheila as I followed Sophie out of the building.
“Wait, Sophie,” I said, holding her still. She didn’t look at me but ripped her arm away.
“I just needed to get the information out of her. She gave me no choice,” I said. She didn’t answer me as we got in the car.
“It wasn’t what it looked like,” I declared.
“I don’t care that you were making out with some girl, Gabriel. But please spare me the lies. You would have gone home with her if I hadn’t interrupted.”
“No, I wouldn’t have. I would have come home to you.”
“I can’t stand you,” she snapped. “Stop talking to me.”
“I didn’t know you’d get so jealous,” I said. She slammed on the brakes as cars behind us honked and sped around. She turned to me in her seat, glaring at me.
“I am not jealous,” she said coldly. “I don’t care.”
“No? So why are you angry?”
She didn’t answer that, but started to drive toward her apartment again, silently fuming beside me.
Chapter 8: Sophie
We took the elevator up to my apartment, standing in tense silence a few feet away from each other. When we got inside, I put my bag down, ignoring him as he stood in the center of the living room, following me with his eyes.
“Nobody broke in here.”
“No,” I said shortly, looking away from him.
“I’m sorry,” he said after a long moment.
“I told you, I don’t care,” I lied, the knot in my throat growing ever tighter.
“You do,” he said softly. “Otherwise, you wouldn’t be so angry. You wouldn’t have faked a reason for me to leave that date.”
I crossed the room to him, hands on my hips, looking him square in the eye.
“I have no feelings for you. I feel nothing.”
“Sophie, you’re lying,” he said. “Just admit it.”
The sizzling anger I felt grew even hotter, but so did my desire for him, standing there with a half-smile that made me want to slap him.
“I hate you, Gabriel Alarick,” I said matter-of-factly. “Don’t ever forget that.”
“You’re trembling,” he said, bringing his hand to my cheek, tracing my jawline with the backs of his fingers. “Is that from anger?”
“I am not,” I said, letting him touch me, each caress sending a bolt of electricity straight to my needy pussy. It drove me crazy to want him so bad in that moment, but there was something about the liveliness in his eyes, the way they danced as he teased me.
“Did you wish I was kissing you instead?” he asked, leaning into me, lips near my ear.
“N—no,” I stammered.
“I think you did,” he said. “If you want me to kiss you, you just have to ask.”
I inhaled sharply when his lips brushed over mine and he placed a soft kiss at the corner of my mouth.
“Did you like kissing her?” I asked him in a whisper.
“No,” he said. “No. You’re all I want, Sophie. You’re everything that I want. I’m yours.”
“You’re mine,” I breathed.
“I am. Whether you want me or not.”
“I want you.”
“Say that again and you can have anything.”
“I want it,” I said, finally taking his mouth in a kiss, which he returned hungrily as he pushed me back onto the bed, undressing me with swift fingers. I blushed as he looked over my body for the first time, for real, his gaze tender, loving, and hungry all at once. He leaned down to kiss me again, this time slow and deep as he brought his hands to stroke my waist.
“I love you,” he said, bringing his face to my neck, kissing me there, tasting the skin. He moved downward, nuzzling my breasts, hands squeezing my waist.
“I want to taste every part of you,” he said, planting kisses on the sides of my breasts, sucking my nipple between his lips for a long moment, making me rub my thighs together.
“I want to kiss every inch of your skin.”
I sighed when he switched to the other breast, then began to kiss me all over, mostly soft brushes of his lips but sometimes hot, open-mouthed kisses on the most sensitive places. Every time I felt his tongue I shivered, especially when he kissed and tasted my thighs, spreading my legs.
“You want me to kiss you here?” he asked, finger moving to stroke my pussy up and down, circling my clit each time.
“Yes, please,” I begged.
“So polite,” he said with a grin, positioning himself between my legs.
“You’re sweet when you’re desperate.”
“I’m not...desperate,” I said, even as I reached down to stroke my own clit with my fingers when he wouldn’t.
“That’s right, angel,” he said in gruff voice as he slipped two fingers inside of me. “Play with your pussy for me. Show me what you like.”
I lost my breath as I started petting myself, not shy as he spread my pussy apart with his thumbs. I toyed with my clit as he fingered my pussy deep, stroking the sensitive inner walls. I moaned softly, humping against his hand.
“Move,” he growled, lowering his face, nudging my hand away so that he could wrap his lips around my clit and flick it with his tongue, stroking just underneath it in the way that I liked. He buried his face between my legs, tossing them over his shoulders so that his broad chest kept me spread apart. I whimpered and came all over his face, losing my senses, eyes rolling back in my head. I reached for him and pulled him back up to my mouth, kissing him deeply, rubbing my pussy against his thigh.
“I love you,” he said again, and this time I broke away. I didn’t say anything as I hurried into the bathroom and shut the door, locking it behind me, slipping into the bathtub and sitting there with all my clothes on. I put my face in my hands and tried to catch my breath as shame and embarrassment washed over me.
“Sophie.” There came a knock at the door. “Can we talk?”
“I don’t want to see you right now,” I said. “I’m really sorry.”
“It’s okay. I can just sit outside the door. Okay?”
“Okay,” I said begrudgingly.
“I’m sorry,” he began. “We shouldn’t have.”
“I want you. I don’t want to want you,” I said. “I feel so out of control.”
“It’s because we’re natural mates,” he said. “You’re made to want me.”
“I don’t want this,” I said. “I want to be able to marry someone else. I want to be able to want someone else. I don’t want to be with you.”
“I know. I unders
tand,” he said, but there was a heavy sadness in his voice that made something within me ache for him—for both of us.
“Do you?”
“Yes,” he said. “I’m sorry for what we just did. I’m sorry. I feel just as out of control.”
“We have to start ignoring it,” I said.
“I can’t, Sophie. I just can’t.”
“Well, you have to try,” I said pleadingly. “Okay? Please.”
“Okay,” he said. “I will.”
“Thank you,” I breathed in relief.
“You’re welcome, angel.”
I opened the door, glancing up at his face to see an anguished look there. Before I could stop myself, I leaned in to kiss him.
“One last time,” I said against his lips, not wanting it to end. He cupped my face in his hands and pulled away to look me in the eye.
“What can I do to make you love me again?” he asked softly. I chewed on my lip, taking a deep breath.
“Change,” I said to him, and I could spy a spark of hope flitter through his eyes.
“I will,” he promised. I studied his face for one more long moment before going to the couch and sinking into it.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“You can have my bed. It’s bigger.”
“I’m not sleeping in your bed while you sleep on the couch.”
“Yes, you are.”
“No,” he said, lifting me into his arms. “I am not.”
“I hate you,” I told him, but he laughed and tossed me on the bed.
“Goodnight,” he said.
“Goodnight, Gabriel,” I responded as he turned off the lights.
Chapter 9: Gabriel
I jerked upward, leaping up from the couch as a loud beeping sounded from the kitchen. Sophie cursed, picking up an oven mitt and trying to fan the smoke detector to get it to shut up. I dashed forward when I saw flame flare up on the stove around the pan, pulling it off and throwing it in the sink.
“Here,” I said, standing on my toes and untwisting the detector from the ceiling so that the sound cut off abruptly. Sophie stared at the pan in the sink with a frown.
“Why did you do that?” she asked, crossing her arms over her chest. “I’ve been working on that all morning.”